I was at home one afternoon, when Amy came in with Chloe and Cole.

Amy said, “Chloe saw a man on the side of the road and asked me why he was walking. I told her he may not have a home. She said ‘Please pick him up and give him a ride. He is so old and he is giving thumbs up to everyone that passes him. I will give him my candy if he is hungry.’ She cried all the way home and tried to bargain with me to give him a ride.”

I smiled.

“Yeah, Cole was pretty irate, too. Before you came in, he’d already found me and ‘tattled’ on you. He said, ‘Mommy didn’t even care about that man!’”

I called Chloe and Cole in the room and sat them down to talk to them about what happened. I told them I was so proud of them for their caring hearts and willingness to help someone in need. I also told them it wasn’t that their mother didn’t care about the man, but she cared more about keeping them safe. There was no way for Amy to know if he was a nice man or a mean man.

“One of the responsibilities God has given me and your mother is to protect you and make sure you’re safe,” I said. “What if your mother had stopped to help that man and he ended up hurting her or you?”

Chloe and Cole hadn’t considered that possibility and begrudgingly accepted maybe Amy had done the right thing by not stopping and picking up the man.

I thought about how they had misunderstood Amy’s actions. They thought she was being mean, while what she was really doing was watching out for their safety.

This often happens with our heavenly father. We get mad at him because he won’t let us have our way. Yet “our way” may lead to misery, heartache, harm or even death in the long run. God is keeping us safe, yet we accuse him of being mean, unfair or unloving. We only see what we want, while God sees the whole picture.

Think about this the next time you get angry at God for not letting you have his way. 1 Corinthians 1:25 says that the foolishness of God is wiser than men. God on his worst day is still wiser than us on our best day.

Just remember whether you believe it or not, he knows what he’s doing.

The Rev. Parrish Myers is a local minister living in Braselton. He can be contacted at www.eyesofthefather.com. His column appears biweekly in Sunday Life and on gainesvilletimes.com/life.